Budget 2014: Making Affordable Housing A Reality

The encouraging response from our #Bajet2014 micro site proves that the rakyat play an important role in our nation’s socioeconomic growth. As expected, affordable housing was one of the most popular topics among the suggestions we received.

Affordable housing has always been of paramount importance to the Barisan Nasional (BN) government. Through multiple efforts under the Government and Economic Transformation Programmes, the 10th Malaysia Plan, Budget 2013 and the BN Manifesto announced during the recent 13th General Election (GE13), we have continued to give priority to the issue of building affordable housing for the people.

This is why the Ministry of Urban Wellbeing, Housing and Local Government recently organised a Housing Laboratory (#HousingLab). Our objective was to see how the public and private sector could collaborate to build affordable housing for the rakyat. Together, we have identified several strategies to address this conundrum, some of which will be revealed during the tabling of the 2014 Budget at the end of this month.

It is the dream of every Malaysian to own their own house, and it is our dream to make that a reality for the people. The BN government promised to build sufficient affordable housing units to fulfil this purpose within five years – half of which will be constructed under the purview of 1Malaysia People’s Housing Programme (PR1MA). To this end, 20,000 PR1MA units have already been approved for construction, and will be built in strategic locations across the country. The remainder will be constructed in stages as planned.

We also provided ample opportunities for Malaysians, such as the My First Home Scheme launched in 2011. Individuals earning below RM5,000 a month, or couples earning below RM10,000 a month can obtain full financing from banks through this scheme, without having to fork out the 10 per cent down payment.

And as we know, speculative buying among high-income earners has denied those in the lower and middle income brackets their right to own their own home. The government is well aware of this issue, and we are currently looking at methods to curb such practices to protect first-time home owners.

Believe that the government is in tune with the concerns of those who have worked hard to buy their first home. We have to build a housing ecosystem that will span several generations, while not burdening the owners their whole lives.

The government will strive to bring good news to the rakyat when #Bajet2014 is tabled in Parliament, on 25 October. Until then, you can subscribe to the latest updates on the issue through 1Malaysia.com.my.